“We always do a year in review in dining,” said an editor in the newsroom. She looked straight at me.
What? Can’t the new girl just get coffee and make copies for people? Apparently not.
Alrighty, then. I don’t have four seasons of firsthand experience upon which to recap 12 months of restaurant news. I arrived in September, and the months that have followed have been nothing short of whirlwind for the restaurant community. Mostly, in a good way.
But before we get to fall and winter, let's roll back the calendar to February, when the James Beard Foundation announced its 2015 restaurant and chef semifinalists. Atlanta was well represented, with 13 nominations for esteemed culinary awards, the highest number this city has ever seen.
It saw four area chefs (Todd Ginsberg, Billy Allin, Kevin Gillespie and Steven Satterfield) nominated for Best Chef: Southeast. Anne Quatrano’s Bacchanalia was in the running for Outstanding Restaurant, and Angus Brown and Nhan Le’s Buckhead seafood spot Lusca for Best New Restaurant. Landon Thompson of Cooks & Soldiers saw his name in the hat for Rising Star Chef (Earlier this month, Thompson, along with chef John Castellucci, prepared a Basque feast at the venerable Beard House in New York.) and Ford Fry got a nod for Outstanding Restaurateur, his third in as many years.
None walked away with a medal, but what speaks volumes and perhaps gives further credence to the nomination is that these chefs and restaurants have powered ahead in 2015.
Allin joined forces with bakers David Garcia and Abigail Quinn to open Proof Bakeshop in Inman Park. By the time this story goes to print, Allin's newest concept, cafe-bistro Bread & Butterfly, located down the street from Proof, will likely have opened. Satterfield dangled a tasty carrot with his 2015 veg-forward cookbook, "Root to Leaf." If the culinary gods are at all fair, his first cookbook should win awards. Not to be outdone, top chef Gillespie opened Revival and he published his second cookbook.
Despite the demands of Bacchanalia, Star Provisions and Floataway Café, Quatrano opened two restaurants, Little Bacch in Westside and W.H. Stiles Fish Camp (aka Dub's) at Ponce City Market. When I spoke with Quatrano this past October, she put those openings in perspective: "I've never opened a restaurant at 56 (years old) before. Abattoir was eight years ago."
Abattoir, Quatrano's Westside steakhouse that closed earlier this year, brings us to the matter of Ford Fry. In the same space where Abattoir rests in peace, Fry has breathed new life with French-inspired steakhouse Marcel, which I awarded three stars. But Marcel wasn't Fry's only project in 2015. His Tex-Mex concept Superica opened at Krog Street Market in February (and another Superica is slated to open in the Buckhead Court shopping center this spring). He had a hand in Bar Margot, which opened this fall at the Four Seasons Hotel, and within weeks, he'd also opened State of Grace, a Southern-inspired coastal-cuisine restaurant, in Houston. More seafood is a-comin' when BeetleCat unlocks doors any day now in Inman Park. All of this from the guy whose team also operates JCT Kitchen, No. 246, the Optimist, King + Duke, St. Cecilia and the El Felix.
Fry’s family of restaurants doubled in the past year. What’s more, despite opening in quick succession, each concept has been well received. “He’s like our King Midas,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution dining critic Wyatt Williams wrote in an email.
When I think about "the scene" as a geographic picture, the action has been Krog Street Market, Ponce City Market and the Beltline that connects them, as well as Westside. Krog Street has maintained its stride since opening a little more than a year ago. Ginsberg's sandwich stall, Fred's Meat & Bread, and his Israeli street food spot, Yalla, are busy to say the least. Chef Kevin Ouzts of the Cockentrice has his entrepreneurial thinking cap on with the recent addition of hot dog cart Frankly next to his charcuterie shop the Spotted Trotter. Ticonderoga Club saw two of the city's most respected bartenders, Greg Best and Paul Calvert, team up with pals to open another anchor restaurant at the food hall. A hop, skip and a jump down the Beltline's Eastside Trail, Ladybird Grove & Mess Hall recently announced it will be expanding to include a more than 4,000-square-foot outdoor "grove" with a bar.
In the past few months, Ponce City Market has experienced a flurry of openings. My latest hit-listers include Hector Santiago's El Super Pan and Jonathan Waxman and Adam Evans' Brezza Cucina (Order the gnocchi.).
Farther north takes us to the upscale The Shops Buckhead Atlanta development. If there was momentum in late 2014 with the debut of spots like Le Bilboquet, Shake Shack, Gypsy Kitchen and the Southern Gentleman, this year might be one of growing pains. Corso Coffee and Dolce Italian both opened, but their parent company, LDV Hospitality, has postponed the opening of its steakhouse, American Cut. Construction has stalled for retailers, too. As AJC biz reporter Scott Trubey wrote, "In 2012, when LDV signed a deal to open three restaurants at Buckhead Atlanta, the plan was for more than 80 merchants to open at once. That hasn't happened."
Shifting talk from dining clusters to one-offs, other important openings include Atlas at the glitzy St. Regis Hotel, MF Sushi in the up-and-coming Inman Quarter development or even strip-mall Szechuan restaurant Masterpiece in Duluth, which Williams called his "OTP gem of the year."
We've also seen a few noteworthy spots shutter this year like the nearly 70-year-old Evans Fine Foods and three of Ron Eyester's four restaurants (Only Diner in Atlantic Station remains.). Gu's Bistro on Buford Highway closed. Sobban, the Korean-meets-Southern diner in Decatur, will count Dec. 19 as its final day of service. Lusca is shuttering as is politico haunt Manuel's Tavern after nearly 60 years, albeit temporarily.
In most of these instances, a next chapter is on the horizon or has already begun. Gu's Dumplings at KSM is a smaller version of Gu's Bistro. Lusca will become a catering facility, and Brown and Le will soon start a new seafood act, Ama, at Paris on Ponce. Manuel's will reopen in the spring after the historic building on North Highland Avenue is refurbished.
No single restaurant closure, however, received as much attention as that of Here to Serve restaurants. In early October, Prime, Noche, Smash, Shucks, Strip and Coast all closed. Owner and CEO Leigh Catherall made the decision to shut her 10 restaurants en masse, and hundreds of employees were given little to no warning.
There is much to this story that saw the demise of restaurants begun in the 1990s by Atlanta's arguably first celebrity chef, Tom Catherall. It's a story that includes divorce, litigation, bankruptcy, and, most recently, Tom Catherall forming a new company in an attempt to jump-start some of the former H2S restaurants that entered his wife's portfolio upon their divorce. Catherall has supporters, but I've also got angry reader letters about honoring gift cards, of paying back wages to employees, of using bankruptcy to shield money. It's reasonable to say that the story isn't finished being told.
Positive action did result from the Here to Serve saga. Other restaurants helped displaced workers find jobs, Atlanta Community Food Bank provided food, and nonprofit the Giving Kitchen offered emergency assistance grants. The latter, which exists to serve those in Atlanta's restaurant community facing unanticipated hardship, has its own feel-good story: After some six years, its profitable arm is finally up and running in the form of Staplehouse, a restaurant in the Old Fourth Ward. That seems like a fitting way to end a year in dining and ring in another.
About the Author
